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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

It's that time again to list the current single family houses and multi-units that are bank owned and offered for sale. CLICK HERE to checkout the current inventory. If you have been following my little blog for some time,you will note that some of the properties are no longer available. Some actually get sold. Some sales take forever to occur, and others can occur very quickly. You may see that several of the properties have had the asking prices reduced.

Some buyers mistakenly think banks are so over-whelmed with the inventory of foreclosed homes that the banks are aching for offers just to sell the houses. Not true. I used to work for a couple of major Denver banks and one of my duties was the management and sale of bank owned real estate. Banks are methodical and make business decisions based on appraised value of the asset, holding costs (taxes, utilities, fees, etc.), real estate commissions, final closing costs, and date of closing. All of those factors are used to determine the "bottom line".

Banks rely on Broker Price Opinions and appraisals to set the asking price and to determine the acceptability of an offer. Appraisals are backward looking. The appraisal uses sales data from prior sales to help determine the present market value. This can be really difficult in a declining market such as the one we are experiencing in Key West.

Banks are adverse risk takers. I recommend that buyers write simple offers with limited contingencies. The less complicated the offer and the quicker the closing, the more likely the offer is to be accepted or countered. Ridiculous offers (price, terms, delayed closing, contingencies on selling other properties, etc.) generally will not be considered.

A lot of the properties banks acquire through foreclosure end up in the bank's portfolio because the prior owner could not sell the property. Key West buyers know that some blocks or areas are not as desirable as other areas. Busy streets are almost always a hard sell. Some houses have structural issues, deferred maintenance, prior flooding, bad neighbors, etc. Those factors can significantly impact the ability to sell in any market but make sales in a depressed market really difficult.

There are two commercial bank owned properties currently available. One is a combination of commercial Duval Street frontage and transient rental accommodations. The second property is a condominium development on Stock Island that went astray. CLICK HERE to checkout those two commercial properties.

Some bank owned properties come with sales incentives or even bank financing offered by the bank owner. Read the fine print on each listing shown on the links to see what incentives may make your purchase more attractive.

If you see a property you like please cal me, Gary Thomas, 305-766-2642 or e-mail me at kw1101v@aol.com to arrange a showing or to request more information.

A note to my readers: the great little cottage at 1118 Olivia is under contract in less than one week.What a STEEL!!!

Also, a major Key West house on Olivia was Bank Owned and on the market for just a little over 24 hours when it went under contract this week as well. (It's not shown above because it was under contract when I wrote this.)

Gary Thomas in a Nutshell

I first read about Key West in a magazine called "After Dark" sometime in the mid 1970's. But it wasn't until March 1984 that I made my first visit to the island that would become my home.
I had two weeks for a vacation and reserved a room at Colours Guesthouse (now Marrero's Guest House) for one week. I thought that if I didn't like Key West, I could always go back to Miami or Ft. Lauderdale for the rest of my trip.
But after a couple of days in Key West, that was no longer a consideration. But when I wanted to extend my stay for the extra week I found there was no room at the inn. The guesthouse owner did find me a room at LaTeDa, the infamous guesthouse/restaurant. That's a story I'll write another day. But those two weeks in Key West gave me the realization that I had found Paradise.
Key West has been my home since 1993 and my only regret is that it took me so long to get here.
I am a full time Realtor at Preferred Properties CRI.
Let me help you find your new home or business in Paradise. Living in Paradise is not a slogan, it's a way of life.